Question: The stories included in the Introduction to The Book of Zohar are encoded parables. To penetrate them and understand what they are talking about, one needs the help of a Kabbalist.

One of the articles in The Book of Zohar is called “The Letters of Rav Hamnuna Saba.” Who is Rav Hamnuna?

Answer: Rav Hamnuna Saba is one of the greatest sages of antiquity who lived over 2,000 years ago. He taught his students the information that The Book of Zohar speaks about.

Question: At the beginning of the article it is written: “When the Creator wished to make the world, all the letters were still hidden, and two thousand years prior to the creation of the world the Creator was observing and playing with the letters.”

What are letters? What does it mean that the letters were hidden and the Creator was playing with them? What is it about?

Answer: The fact is that there was no time then. It is said: “Two thousand years prior to the creation of the world.” What times are we talking about here, what is the time-counting? All this is very conditional.

We must understand that we are talking only about spiritual processes and not about some years or rotation of planets, stars, luminaries, to our world, and so on.

As Baal HaSulam writes, the information given in Kabbalistic books is beyond time and space.
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From KabTV’s “Introduction to The Book of Zohar“4/23/23

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Question: Is The Book of Zohar closer to us in understanding because it was written at the verge of the exile from spiritual attainment?

Answer: Any texts of The Book of Zohar are closer to us than other holy books. The holy books mean books written by the Kabbalists from the attainment of the upper spheres but in different keys, in different forms.

The Zohar is written in a style that has the brightest and strongest effect on us because everything is contained in its words, in their form, combination, and intention.

They operate in the same key, in the same stream, they are on the same line with the system of our internal structure, with our world, with the forces of the upper world. That is, the letters are a graphic representation of the combination of upper forces at all their levels up to the highest, that is, up to the level of GAR de Bina of the world of Atzilut.

But there is no miracle in this! There is only one way for the upper energy to influence us, which will transform us. Other sources cannot influence us so much because they are not written with such symbols. They do not depict the same qualities.

If you copy The Book of Zohar in another language, this will still distort it for you. It must be written either in Aramaic or in Hebrew, in Biblical Hebrew. Both languages complement each other. These are related languages that go back to Adam.

Adam is a man who lived in our world 5,782 years ago. He was the first to reveal this upper sphere, these letters, and began to describe the upper worlds with them.

From there, all knowledge came to us through 20 generations who have attained the upper worlds, from Adam to Abraham, and then from Abraham to us. This is all described in the Torah (in the Bible).

So, it all goes back to Adam, the spiritual source of all created beings, that is, not to our corporeal forefather, who allegedly gave birth to humanity together with Eve, but to our spiritual father Adam.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Secret of the Zohar” 1/9/11

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Question: Why is Hebrew used as a spoken language now?

Answer: It is because the Kabbalistic group that left Babylon with Abraham and organized a separate existence for itself according to spiritual laws took this language as their main language.

Aramaic was also used in Babylon. Aramaic and Hebrew are the source of all other languages. This is confirmed by many scientific studies.

The group of Abraham existed for 3,500 years before the collapse of the state of Israel that occurred 2,000 years ago, and they used this language as their own because they were in spiritual attainment.

The Jews wrote in this language about their spiritual attainments. The Bible, the Prophets, the Holy Scriptures, the Talmud, and the Mishnah are written in this language.

While in exile the Jews did not use Hebrew in everyday life, they only taught the Torah in it because they had fallen from the spiritual degree. Now we are reviving this language because we want to rise to the spiritual degree.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Uniqueness of Hebrew” 1/9/11

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From the point of view of the digital-analog presentation of information and its sensations, four languages ​​are used in Kabbalah.

The language in which the Torah is described is everyday, narrative, and literary. The language of The Zohar is descriptive with hints, all kinds of legends, and examples that are sometimes far from life. The language of the Talmud is a legal language. The language of Kabbalah is a mathematical language; I would say it is physical and mathematical.

These four languages ​​give us, in general, four styles of describing the same events in the soul within a person. All of them complement each other. For our generation, the best is the last language, the Kabbalistic one.

All languages ​​describe the same thing: degrees of the states that you must reproduce in yourself and feel sensorially in an analog form, and thus advance step by step.

Still, scientific perception, that is, The Study of the Ten Sefirot is the closest to us. It was mainly developed in the 16^th century AD by the Ari. Then Baal HaSulam complemented it and adapted it to our generation. Therefore, for us it is the most reliable system of presentation and application.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Languages ​​of The Zohar, Talmud and Torah” 10/16/13

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The word “Kabbalah” is explained in different ways. One of the meanings is transmission, since the language of Kabbalah can be transmitted only in the connection of a student and a teacher.

All other languages (Tanakh, Alakhu, Haggadah) you can study by yourself.

Of course, you have to get books from previous generations, study explanations of key points, and have the opportunity to consult with someone, but you don’t have to be closely connected with the teacher; you don’t have to learn how he thinks, feels, and treats everything.

You are not obliged to accept from him or to copy his attitude or worldview.

But in order to attain the language of Kabbalah, you must cling to him. After all, he is the upper and you are the lower.

He presents his AHP to you, and you are obliged to perceive it as something desirable despite its externality that deliberately, egoistically repels you.

Of course, you disagree with the teacher, do not want, reject, and hate. But, in essence, it shows you how much you don’t accept the spiritual.

You have to acquire a language, a program, that works in it, but doesn’t yet work in you. You try to copy it on yourself from the examples that are given to you.

Without the help of a teacher who is next to you in the same world, in the same sensory organs, in order to penetrate into the spiritual, whose attitude to the spiritual you can cling to despite the external obstacles blocking your ability to achieve inner connection—without such examples, the Creator would leave you in complete isolation from the spiritual, without any hope.

It is impossible to extract spirituality from books. After all, it is not attained by the earthly mind.

Only on the condition that a person annuls his egoism and destroys the barrier between himself and the teacher in order to see his inner content, only on this condition, does he absorb his spiritual contemplation as far as he is able.

And if you have somehow grasped the program of the teacher’s connection with the Creator, you can continue; otherwise, no.

This is what the Ari said before his death, that only one of his students, Chaim Vital, could continue to study Kabbalah, because he took over from him the basics of the language and the program of connection with the Creator, while the others did not.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/10/09, Baal HaSulam “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and its Essence”

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This is what I have troubled to do in this interpretation, to explain the ten Sefirot as the Godly sage the Ari had instructed us, in their spiritual purity, devoid of any tangible terms. Thus, any beginner may approach the wisdom without failing in any materialization or mistake.

With the understanding of these ten Sefirot, one will also come to examine and know how to comprehend the rest of the issues in this wisdom. (Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Part 1: Restriction and line, Inner Observation).

Baal HaSulam says that Kabbalists specifically took the language of the Sefirot in order not to materialize spiritual objects.

Gradually, by studying Kabbalistic texts, a person will begin to understand the spiritual actions and spiritual concepts behind all the words of our world.

Baal HaSulam recommends that beginners study the spiritual world in Kabbalistic language and not in the language of branches, which was used in the books written in previous generations, so as not to get confused with all those stories.

The fact is that Kabbalists who attained the upper world and more or less understood the inner meaning of Kabbalah still could not clearly state anything because they did not have this language.

It was Baal HaSulam who revealed its correct use. Therefore, after him, we can already generally be sure that we will not make a mistake and we will correctly state and understand everything.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 8/14/22

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That should appease your mind regarding the perplexing expressions we often find in books of Kabbalah……, and some that are even foreign to the human spirit (Baal HaSulam, Study of the Ten Sefirot, “Inner Observation”).

Question: Baal HaSulam writes of such concepts as, for example, a kiss or copulation, which at first glance are not quite decent things. But in Kabbalah, they imply a certain connection between spiritual objects. Therefore, he says it is necessary to use the exact terms that clearly correspond to the root relating to the branch, which cannot be replaced with other words.

What if the Kabbalist makes a mistake? Could it be that he called the root the wrong branch?

Answer: If a present-day Kabbalist writes it, consistently using this or that term, we accept it as a given. And if, for example, he could have made a mistake, then it is not clear what his mistake comes from. It follows, he does not understand exactly what is happening in the spiritual world and therefore does not see the right consequence in our world. That is, his language of the branches is incorrect.

But a true Kabbalist who attains the upper actions and their consequences in our world cannot choose to use other words no matter how strange they may be.

Comment: For example, Baal HaSulam wrote about why the mountain in Jerusalem is called the Mount of Olives. That is, Kabbalists felt from their attainment that this is exactly what it should be called, or why Adam was called Adam in the Torah.

My Response: Yes, all Kabbalistic terms, and these are practically all the words in the Torah, come from the Kabbalist’s attainment.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 8/14/22

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Question: The Torah is written in the language of branches. For example, in the Torah the word “Egypt” (Mitzraim) means “concentration of evil” (Mitz Ra). That is, a Kabbalist feels the evil of his egoistic nature, but calls it Egypt. In our world there is such a country or, say, a place. This is clear.

But when a Kabbalist says such terms as “Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin,” there is no manifestation of such words in our world. Where are their branches?

Answer: Partly, they are manifested. In our world there are words like “Keter, Hochma, Bina,” although we use them in a completely different context. But there are also terms that are not used in our world. Kabbalists derived them from their spiritual attainment.

In other words, there are spiritual objects that do not manifest in the material world. And there are those that do manifest so we by seeing the branches can name them.

Comment: But if we can’t name them, then Kabbalists came up with all sorts of names, for example, “Ten Sefirot,” which actually do not mean anything?

Answer: This is not made up but derived out of their attainment. For example, why did they call the mountain in Jerusalem the Mount of Olives? Because they saw that it was suitable for planting olive trees on it. And so with the other words.

That is, if a person does not have spiritual attainment, he cannot research anything in Kabbalah.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 10/16/22

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First, we must know that when dealing with spiritual matters, which have no concern with time, space, or motion, and moreover when dealing with Godliness, we do not have the words by which to contemplate and express. Our entire vocabulary is taken from sensations of imaginary senses.

For this reason, the sages of the Kabbalah have chosen a special language that we can call “the language of the branches” (Baal HaSulam, Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 1, “Restriction and Line,” Inner Observation).

The language of the branches is a special language used by Kabbalists. On one hand, it is taken from our world, and on the other hand from the sensation that they take from the upper world. It turns out that while speaking in the language of our world, Kabbalists propose to describe some phenomena in the upper world.

In principle, this is impossible, but when a person gradually studies the text, devotes a lot of time to this, and wants to attain the real spiritual laws and actions, then he invites the upper light to come closer to him because it is how it is embedded in the text itself by its author.

Therefore, a person begins to come closer to understanding the inner meaning of the text. In this way, he slowly overcomes this basically insurmountable barrier between our world and the spiritual world and begins to understand spiritual actions through the words of our world.

In the Study of the Ten Sefirot, Baal HaSulam provides a dictionary of Kabbalistic terms and gives an explanation of them that is close to understanding in our world. But still, this is not our world.

Light, darkness, becoming closer, distancing, restriction—in general he tries to explain all actions of the spiritual world with the help of various terms, and by studying them we attract the surrounding light upon ourselves.

In fact, we do not understand what it is about, but we at the same time awaken the upper light, which influences us and brings us closer to feeling the actions of the upper light
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From KabTV’s The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES) 10/16/22

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Question: The Kabbalistic term “Lishma” is translated to “for the sake of the Creator.” What does this mean?

Answer: It means that all of creation, which is an egoistic desire for its own sake, must correct itself, change itself, as if to turn itself inside out, in order to do everything not for its own sake, but for the sake of the Creator or for the sake of others, which is basically the same thing.

It is said “From self‒love to love for friends, and then to love for the Creator.” Which means, it is the same thing. Only the meaning of love for the Creator is universal love, beyond all differences between all. And before that, we just practice on the love of friends.

Question: Which means, I should not receive and give for my own sake, but for the sake of others or for the sake of the Creator. Why?

Answer: Because in this case your desires become boundless and you begin to feel in them what the Creator feels: eternity and perfection. It seems like you have to give, but in fact you receive at the same time.

Question: It is like in an organism where every organ gets what it needs and gives everything else away, but thanks to this, life is maintained in the body and everyone benefits from it. Does Kabbalah say that we should all come to this state?

Answer: We must come to the most perfect, best, and greatest fulfillment—knowledge. Therefore, “Kabbalah” is translated from Hebrew as “the science of receiving.”

But this receiving can be limitless, infinite, only if it works together with others.

Question: So this kind of interaction should be between all people?

Answer: Yes. It allows you to get eternal and perfect fulfillment.

Question: What needs to happen for this to occur?

Answer: Recognition of the evil of our current state.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah”

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